Where’s the Hate? Here, There, Everywhere.

In a time of heightened racial and geographical tension, take a look at SPLC’s ‘hate map,’ which shows where organized bigotry occurs in the U.S. right now

Donald Trump’s head-scratch-inducing trip to Mexico to meet with the country’s president, whom he’s very excited to talk with, feels like a tough pill to swallow. (Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has invited Clinton as well.) And then there’ll be the “highly anticipated” speech about immigration following his visit, a media spectacle you won’t want to miss. And who knows what he’ll say?

It’s nearly autumn, and we’ve been downing Trump’s jagged hypocrisy for months now, but his political rhetoric still goes down like a tall glass of tacks. Trump, a clown who incites hatred, has maligned Mexicans, calling some of them rapists and criminals and drug runners and killers. He wants to deport America’s illegal immigrants, some 11 million of them. He wants Mexico to pay for a wall. Oh, but then there are reports he’s softening his stances on said deportations, leaving Trump “caught between appeasing his staunchest supporters and attempting to appeal to moderate Republicans and independent voters with a softer stance,” reportsThe Washington Post.

“His staunchest supporters” feels like a bit of a write-around. Trump has emboldened the ideas of bigot-leaders like David Duke (whom Trump finally disavows with regularity), or the leader of American Nazi Party, who believes a Trump presidency would be “a real opportunity” for white nationalists. Hate, bigotry, and a desire to make (to put it lightly) America a less diverse place is a very real undercurrent that’s being stoked by Trump’s candidacy.

Which makes me believe that now is a good time to direct you to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Hate Map.” This interactive graphic allows viewers to locate any one of the 892 SPLC-identified “hate groups” that exist in the U.S. Let me be clear: I am not saying that each group supports Trump. But racial tensions in America feel and are high—a tautness made ever tighter with seemingly every off-the-cuffism Trump blurts out—and it’s important to know where organized hatred—from neo-Nazis to Holocaust deniers—might be, perhaps even in your backyard.

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